Asian Stock Futures Rise on U.S. Earnings Optimism

Asian stock futures rose, signaling
shares in the region will follow gains in U.S. stocks, after
earnings at Citigroup Inc. beat estimates. Japanese equities
will reopen following a holiday yesterday.

American depositary receipts of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial
Group Inc., Japan’s biggest lender, added 1.7 percent from the
closing share price in Tokyo on July 12. Those of Honda Motor
Co., a Japanese carmaker that gets 47 percent of its sales in
North America, gained 1.4 percent. ADRs of BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP),
Australia’s biggest oil producer, added 0.6 percent as crude
rose for a second day.

Futures on Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average expiring in
September closed at 14,710 in Chicago yesterday, compared with
14,470 on July 12 in Osaka, Japan. They were bid in the pre-market at 14,660 in Osaka at 8:05 a.m. local time. Futures on
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 0.4 percent. New Zealand’s
NZX 50 Index fell 0.2 percent. Futures on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng
Index gained 0.4 percent and contracts on the Hang Seng China
Enterprises Index of mainland companies trading in Hong Kong
climbed 0.6 percent.

“Good corporate earnings in the U.S. are improving
investors’ sentiment because expectations weren’t that high to
begin with,” said Toshihiko Matsuno, a strategist at Tokyo-based SMBC Friend Securities Co., a unit of Japan’s second-biggest lender by market value. “The yen reached below 100
again, boosting optimism about earnings.”

U.S. Earnings

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were little
changed today. The index gained 0.1 percent in New York
yesterday when Citigroup, the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets,
posted adjusted earnings of $1.25 a share for the second
quarter, beating the $1.18 average estimate of 27 analysts
surveyed by Bloomberg News.

U.S. retail sales rose less than projected in June. The 0.4
percent gain followed a 0.5 percent increase in May that was
less than previously reported, Commerce Department figures
showed yesterday.

The yen reached 100.48 per dollar yesterday before trading
at 99.94 per dollar as of 7:48 a.m. in Tokyo.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange becomes the world’s third-biggest
bourse by listed companies today, adding 1,100 stocks from the
Osaka Securities Exchange as the two merge their cash-equity
trading platforms.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 4.3 percent this year
through yesterday. The Asian benchmark traded at 13.2 times
estimated earnings on average, compared with 15.2 times for the
S&P 500 and 13.3 times for the Stoxx Europe 600 Index.

The Bloomberg China-US Equity Index of the most-traded
Chinese stocks in the U.S. advanced 1 percent to 88.35
yesterday, after surging 3.7 percent last week.